Wednesday, October 31, 2007

If you want nothing, don't ask for something....

Arcade Fire @ Nottingham Arena, 31st August 2007

I think the first time I ever really noticed the Arcade Fire was when everyone else seemed to be absolutely raving about them and saying how their debut album ("Funeral") was the greatest thing ever recorded. Although all this talk naturally made me curious to hear them, it also managed to give me the impression that they almost certainly weren't going to be as good as their reputation would have me believe. In a way, I suppose I was right: although I thought it was a good enough album, it didn't jump out at me as being a classic. I listened to it for a bit and then filed it away for future reference. A few months later, I dug it back out again and gave it another listen. With a bit of distance, and with less (imagined) pressure to hail it as a work of genius, I found that it was growing on me and that and that songs like "Neighbourhood #2 (Laika)", "Wake up" and "Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)" were actually really good.

I was away in Ecuador when "Neon Bible" came out, but was lucky enough to receive it as a birthday gift immediately upon my return. Again, the band were being praised from the rooftops, and again, I found that this put me off being able to listen to this with a completely open mind. It's not that I wanted to dislike them, particularly, and it's not the band's fault, it's just that for some reason I felt as though people were telling me that I should like them because they were obviously brilliant. I thought they were pretty good, but.... brilliant? Hmmm. Not to my ears, not immediately, anyway. Even then, it was clear that by almost anyone's standards, this was certainly a good album and more than enough for me to decide that I wanted to see them live - perhaps at the Glastonbury festival in June.

Alas, as the timetable turned out, I was only able to watch the first 30 minutes of the Arcade Fire set before I had to (slightly reluctantly) trudge off up to the Pyramid Stage to watch the Arctic Monkeys. From what I saw of them, the Arcade Fire looked a formidable live proposition - but I had made the tactical decision that I was more likely to be able to get tickets to see the Arcade Fire playing again than I was to be able to see the Monkeys again. As it turns out, I was right.... and on the very same day that I got back to Nottingham from the festival, I was able to buy standing tickets for their gig at the Nottingham Arena - all the while hoping that their fans wouldn't be as rude in an arena as they had been in a muddy field in Somerset (when they pushed and shoved their way past everyone even before Rufus Wainwright had finished his set, as if they somehow *deserved* to be standing at the front).

As usual with an arena gig, we didn't exactly break our necks to get there early. We waltzed in some time after the support band had finished and adopted a position towards the back and well away from the crush at the front. Although clearly not a sell-out, the Arena was pretty full and I think I actually detected an air of some anticipation from the crowd. I had just about enough time to get a beer and listen to the halloween themed music on the PA before the band took to the stage - a process that took a good couple of minutes. I suppose the Arcade Fire had to become an arena band really.... they're the only stages anywhere near big enough to take a band with so many members. As well as the traditional guitars, bass, drums and keyboards, the Arcade Fire also seem to have a couple of auxiliary drummers, an organist, some brass and their own strings section (it's hard to tell exactly how many members there are in the band as they all seem to be multi-instrumentalists and well capable of playing anything that happened to be close to hand. Even the bloody drummer seemed comfortable on keyboard and guitars for a couple of numbers. The drummer, for heaven's sake. Whatever next? I think I counted 10 of them in all).

Just as I was at Glastonbury, for some reason I found myself being surprised by quite how easily their sound fills a venue of this size. It's not that they sound small on record, it's just that their music seems to grow and sounds right played in a great big barn like this... which certainly isn't true of every band I've seen here. They open up with "Black Mirror" and sound fantastic. As LB pointed out, Win Butler sounds a lot like David Byrne from Talking Heads, but for my money the sound of the band is rather less sparse and spiky than that of Talking Heads. I'm not sure I'm convinced that they are a great band though, although they are clearly capable of great things. About half of the material that they play is stratospherically good: Neighbourhoods #1, #2 and #3, Wake Up, Black Mirror, Keep The Car Running, No Cars Go... but I find the rest of their material stuggles to live with that kind of quality. Perhaps this is partly because I don't know their albums inside out, but I think it's also partly to do with the fact that although their peaks are very high indeed, they haven't yet got the material to sustain that level of quality for a whole gig and so there are inevitably a few lulls. They're clearly very accomplished musicians though, and their performance is intense enough that they effortlessly hold the attention of the crowd throughout. Perhaps just to make my night, they also play a cover version of "Still Ill" by The Smiths. As soon as I recognised the opening chords, I was wondering if it would be fair to add a mark to my verdict just because they were playing a Smiths song, but as they got into it, I realised that they weren't doing a very good job of it. Oh, to be fair, I suppose they made a decent fist of it, and it's a great song and everything... it's just that it brought it really served to bring home for me just how good The Smiths were. The Arcade Fire are not that good. At least not yet....

They closed the set with a triumphant version of "Wake Up" that had the whole Arena on their feet and dancing, and then they were gone leaving me with the impression that they were a good band; a band with some great material and with the potential to be a great band... but they're not a great band quite yet.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

now I wanna be your dog......

Right. Another trawl through the dusty wastelands of the actual shelves holding my actual CD collection. As always, this is not an attempt to be a definitive list of the albums that I own and the bands that I like... rather, it's an unflinching look at the shelves in my study and the secrets that they hold. It does not include the CDs that are in my car, near any of the stereos in the house or in an untidy little pile on the stairs....

It's a pretty short list this week actually. "I" appears not to be the most populous letter of the alphabet when it comes to bands......... at least in my collection, anyway.

226. Interpol – Antics227. Interpol – Turn on the Bright Lights

I've got "Our Love to Admire" kicking around somewhere too, but it's not on these shelves and is probably in the car... and thus doesn't count. I like Interpol. I discovered them when Zane Lowe played "Slow Hand" as I was driving home from work one evening. I was captivated by the monotone voice (which sounds like an undertaker reading from a legal textbook) together with the driving indie-style rock. I subsequently went out and picked up their debut album and, when it was released, "Antics". Both are excellent albums, and they are also an excellent live act. Sure, they're not the most original band in the world, and their bassist has clearly spent way, way too much time watching old footage of Peter Hook, but they are certainly effective in what they do. I was reading the other day how The Editors vehemently deny that they are influenced by Interpol and that it's a comparison that is brought about simply by the baritone voice of both singers. Hmmm. The Editors can only hope to be half as good and interesting a band as Interpol. One of my favourite discoveries of the last couple of years, even if I'm still not sure that "No I in Threesome" should be taken seriously.

228. Idlewild – The Remote Part

I suppose I bought this initially because of "American English", but in the end it was the rather more basic charms of "You Held the World in Your Arms" that captivated me. Ultimately I find this album a bit too slight to hold my attentions for long - it's neither as fey as someone like Belle & Sebastian nor as rocky as someone like Manic Street Preachers nor ultimately as good as someone like early period REM (who they could easily be compared to). It's a decent enough album, I suppose, but it's very second division, if you ask me. Singer Roddy Woomble does take the award for one of the most unlikely names in rock though.

229. Inspiral Carpets – The Singles

They were bloody brilliant on the Pyramid Stage on a rainy afternoon at Glastonbury, and they were pretty good at Rock City too. There's nothing big or clever about the Inspiral Carpets, but they're great anyway. "Saturn 5" is one of those songs that will get me up and dancing, and they're rare indeed.

230. Iron Maiden – Best of the Beast

Iron Maiden are one of the seminal bands in my musical life. I initially bought "The Number of the Beast" on cassette when I was 13 years old because I quite liked the cover. It proved to be a real gateway album into the world of heavy metal, and almost before I knew where I was, I had all the Iron Maiden albums and was busy exploring bands like Metallica, Faith No More and -- ahem -- Poison, Slaughter and Bon Jovi. Maiden were always where it was at for me though and they were always a great live band too. I was lucky enough to meet Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith at a signing when I worked at HMV in York and they were absolutely lovely. Where the boyband we had in the week before clearly couldn't give a monkey's about the fans that had be queuing for their autographs, Bruce spent as much time with each fan as they needed, happily signing material from his years in Samson and generally chewing the cud with the people who bought his records. They were also good enough to share their rider (some sandwiches and a few bags of crisps) with us in the staff room afterwards. And they signed my CD too. Since then, a rather lovely person has provided me with the MP3s of all those albums that I've got on tape, and I still get a kick out of listening to songs from "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" (or whatever) pop up on my iPod when I'm listening on shuffle in the office. Great band.

I think I picked these up for a bargain price in Fopp or something like that.... they're just great, pretty straightforward rock albums that you need to listen to loud. "Search and Destroy" is one of my favourite songs for ages, although tragically it took me buying "Raw Power" to find out that it wasn't originally by the Red Hot Chili Peppers at all.... Strangely, I don't own any of Iggy's solo stuff. I'm not really sure why - probably because I've got "Lust for Life" and "The Passenger" on compilation albums somewhere. I'm sure I'm probably still missing out though. I also decided to give his set at Glastonbury a miss this year and went to watch Rodrigo Y Gabriella instead (and if I hadn't gone to see them, I probably would have tried to go and see Madness - making Iggy third choice on the night... but still above the Killers on the Pyramid). Good albums. Short, sharp shocks.

Monday, October 29, 2007

you were screaming at your mum and I was punching your dad....

The Young Knives @ Nottingham Rescue Rooms, 29th October 2007

For the first time in a long time, I get to a venue in time to see both support bands. True, I only catch the last couple of songs by the Housewives, but it's more than enough. They're a funny looking bunch, for sure, but their guitarist also plays the worst guitar solo I have ever heard in my life - it's so rubbish (probably deliberately so) that I reckon that I would have half a chance of nailing it, and I don't play the guitar. The bassist also sports a haircut that looks a little like an unraveled brushover, which is a touch unfortunate. Ungdomskulen are a very different proposition though. Hailing from Bergen in Norway, they come across as a kind of scruffy Hives mixed with a touch of prog, a hint of Pavement and perhaps a dash of Sonic Youth. They also have an excellent drummer and a very crowd friendly singer / guitarist who keeps the crowd well entertained between songs:

"Boo for me!"[crowd boos]"Ah, come on! We're not that bad!"

or

"This song was a big hit in Norway and we eventually had to stop playing it. Like Nirvana and 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. Not that I'm comparing us to Nirvana..."

or

"This song is our best and most well known song. It's seven minutes long. [someone at the side of the stage holds up 3 fingers] We've only got three minutes..... well, this is the shortened version..."

And so on. In fact, they're so good that I am moved to do something I have never done before, and I buy their CD from the merchandise desk just behind me.

They were excellent.

The Young Knives take to the stage about 10 minutes later and are immediately moaning in a good natured way about the quality of the support (“You pick the support act, and they turn out to be the best band in the world.”)

They really are an unlikely looking bunch: moon faced, bespectacled and mostly wearing shirts, ties and tweed. They're famously from nearby Ashby-de-la-Zouch, about as un-rock and roll a town as you could possibly imagine. Tonight they certainly do rock though, and they are a very well-drilled live act. They apologetically play a lot of new material, but it is well received by the small-ish crowd and sounds pretty good. It's the older material that really brings the house down: 'Here Comes The Rumour Mill', 'Weekends and Bleak Days (Hot Summer)', 'Loughborough Suicide', 'She's Attracted To' and the absolutely barking 'The Decision'.

They are produced by Andy Gill of Gang of Four, and it's not hard to hear the influence: lots of choppy, post-punk guitars and barked lyrics. What marks this lot out as a bit different for me though is that just when you are thinking that a song is sounding fairly conventional, they suddenly dive off in an unexpected melodic direction, with swapped vocals and harmonies between singer/guitarist Henry Dartnell and bassist Thomas "The House of Lords" Dartnell (at one point moonfaced Henry turned to the crowd and informed us that he was the Arnold Schwarzenegger to his brother's Danny de Vito, having got all the looks in the family). They also seem to have a well-developed sense of the absurd, perhaps best seen in the video for The Decision, but also apparent in their artwork and dress-sense, their quirky lyrics and their self-deprecating onstage banter. In spite of the fact that they play pretty full-on rock, they also seem to have a slightly bucolic air of innocence about them. I'm mildly surprised to see some kids pushing their way to the front during "The Decision". They're all proudly sporting the kind of hair that Paul Weller would have if he neglected to wash for about a month, and look as though they got lost on the way to a Kasabian gig, but they seem to absolutely love this bunch of tweed-wearing misfits. Good for them. In a world where Oasis are still mind-numbingly popular and where The Twang can sell any records at all, it's nice to see a band with a bit of intelligence about them.

I think they'r brilliant, and although they played a lot of new songs tonight, I thought it was a great set. New single "Terra Firma" was out this week, and they urged us all to go and buy it, if for no other reason than they want to keep Jack Penate off the top of the chart because they don't like him.

"He's a c*nt!" shouted someone from the crowd."He certainly is a.... that word I can't say because my mum is in the audience."

everything's for sale.....

I occasionally get emails from people wanting to buy advertising on this blog. No, I don't know why either really. Let's be honest: it's not as though the likes of Endsleigh Insurance are really going to drive much click-through traffic from you lot, is it? Nor is £500 enough money for me to put adverts up (just so you know). I had a slightly different approach from Stella Artois the other week, who sent me an email with some very specific comments about my blog and an invitation to go and visit some film website or other they were launching in return for a pile of free stuff. I'm not really sure what they were hoping to gain by inviting me on board, but I actually thought about that one, being as they'd clearly done some reading here and all, but in the end I simply couldn't be arsed.

I was trawling the spam folder on my email today though, and I found an email with the heading "WILL THE CHRISTMAS NUMBER 1 BE AN EARWORM?". Hello, I thought, what on earth is this?

---

Dear Swiss Toni,

I notice you suffer from the occasional earworm or two! Thought you might be interested in the following and at least put them to good use!!!

WILL THE CHRISTMAS NUMBER 1 BE AN EARWORM?

Jingles on the brain help language-learning stick

‘Tis the season when you find Christmas songs stuck in your brain – if only it was that easy to remember Italian or Spanish words when you need them!

But it is, with XXXXXXXXX [product name removed to avoid free advertising] you can give the gift of language to someone planning to catch some winter sun, take to the ski slopes or even stay at home struggling with their GCSE revision.

Our researchers estimate that many of the best selling Christmas number ones are in fact ‘earworms’ - songs that have sound patterns that are indelibly burned into your auditory cortex. Just try saying the following out loud and immediately most pop-pickers over the age of 20 would be able to give you a rendition.

The elves from Earworms have captured this magic, incorporating something useful, so you can say ‘Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?’ in the sort of French accent that gets results. Languages for the most popular holiday destinations are included in the ‘Rapid’ series including Italian, French, Spanish, Greek, German, and Portuguese and even Mandarin, Russian and Japanese.

Volume 1 covers all the essentials such as polite phrases, ordering a drink, at the restaurant, hotel, dealing with problems etc. Volume 2 will have you talking about yourself and others, likes and dislikes and general conversational items (even flirting). Using the lexical approach, by breaking vocabulary into ‘chunks’ and then reconstructing them, you can mix and match phrases to create natural conversations.

Earworms is unique in that it’s effortless – just play the CD in the car, at the gym, or as a download on your MP3 player while jogging, and after a few repetitions key words and phrases and are embedded in your mind, ready for instant recall when required.

The idea is not new. Song and verse have always been a powerful memory aid - from the Aborigines ‘Songlines’ to the advertising industry slogans – Earworms taps into this subconscious brain function to make learning spontaneous.

Music puts listeners into the ‘alpha state’ of relaxed alertness, which is ideal for learning and Earworms exploits this by using simple techniques which open up more of the brain's native power, making language learning fun and rewarding even to people that struggled in the past to learn languages.

Available from high street bookshops, major Post Offices, Amazon etc. etc. etc.

Friday, October 26, 2007

The world is large, and I've got time yet.....

Right, I've had it for ages and have been trying to give it a really good listen before plunging in with my review... but finally, here is the review of the Shuffleathon 2007 CD that was kindly sent to me by Mike from Troubled-Diva.

This starts with some gentle, lyrical accordion and has the overall tone of a very refined Irish dance. This is reinforced by the singer's voice, which is a slightly smokey Irish-sounding brogue. Given that Tabor is actually English, I assume that this is just her singing in a "folk" stylee. Although under normal circumstances, I would probably rather immerse my head in a bucket of boiling water before I listened to a song that featured fiddles and singing in a folk stylee... actually, this is really good. It's like listening to a very, very soothing waltz. It's quite a long song (over 7 minutes) and it unfurls in a lovely, relaxed a leisurely way. A good start. Not something that I would naturally listen to, but none the worse for that. This has really grown on me with every listen.

2. Nightsong - Sidsel Endresen & Bugge Wesseltoft (1994)

This song begins with some soft piano chords and is beautifully mixed with the end of the last track's accordion as it fades out. The song itself sounds like a lament for something lost, and conjures up some lovely images: finishing a breakfast egg, blues by Otis Redding, fish and chips on corners, looking at the leaves of trees against the sky in streetlights. It's sad, short and lovely.

3. Builds the Bone - The Hidden Cameras (2004)

Another beautiful mix in with the last track, this one with some guitar, some slowly swelling strings and another Nordic voice sounding sad (although again, my powers of accent identification must be weak as this is a Canadian band). It's a simple song, with a looping feel to it. It's haunting. This is a lot closer to the kind of music I would normally listen to, but it's beautifully crafted. Could easily be used to soundtrack a quiet moment in a film... one of those small budget indie kind of film, possibly featuring a desert. It sounds faintly like Jose Gonazalez, or someone like that.

4. Your Love is a Tease - Rod Thomas (2007)

Immediately this one sounds a lot more poppy, but a sophisticated kind of pop and a long way from the more plastic type of music.... much more crafted. It has a slight echo of the 1980s in it, but I'm thinking of bands like Prefab Sprout. Wikipedia tells me that he's the singer in Matchbox 20 and the singer on the Carlos Santana record "Smooth". I was not aware of that.**What about this lyric:

"dance like there's nobody watchingif there is, we don't care"

That should be a cliche... and it is a cliche... and yet somehow when I hear it in the context of this song, it isn't.

** no, it's not that guy (Rob Thomas, the singer from Matchbox 20), it's someone else (Rod Thomas, a singer from London). I can't find any more info on him though. Mike?

5. Don't Let Me Down - Charlotte Dada (1971)

This is instantly recognisable as the Beatles song, although it appears to be being played with percussion consisting entirely of people banging on saucepans with wooden spoons. The singer herself sounds slightly creole, I think (although with my record on accents so far...). Ah, she's from Ghana. In it's own way, it's actually quite faithful to the original. Not bad.

6. Go On Fool - Marion Black (1970)

Oh, this sounds as though it's come straight off an old record, with that lovely warm scratchy sound that you just don't get on digitally recorded music any more. What's more, the cracks and pops are entirely appropriate for this record, which is a beautiful, soulful blues track (or is it a bluesy soul track?). It's a classic tale of woe of a man who marries a woman, adopts her children and gets nothing but misery for his troubles. It's a great record and could easily have featured on the "High Fidelity" soundtrack, perhaps with John Cusack's character sat brooding in his chair with his headphones on. Great track.

7. I Just Can't Help Believing - Elvis Presley (1971)

I'm not familiar with the song, but the voice is instantly recognisable, of course. This is a concert recording, and it find Elvis in good form.... it starts out as a slow but happy number that bursts into life at about the 2 minute mark when the horns really kick in and lift the tempo of the song up. All the better for featuring a great Elvis speaky bit: "Sing us out baby. One more time. One more." Superb. The King.

8.Happy Heart - Marc Almond (2007)

Mixed in hard on the heels of the applause at the end of the Elvis track, it's not hard to recognise either Almond's voice or the song itself. It's a dreadfully saccharine song, but Almond somehow imbues it with a sense of drama (or perhaps melodrama?). C. hated this, but I like it. Actually, although I don't own any of his records, I've something of a soft spot for Marc Almond - he wrote the sleeve notes to the first Scott Walker album that I ever bought. I love the way his voice takes off in the chorus, accompanied by trumpets as he soars.

9. Boring - The Pieces (2007)

Just as the mix was taking a plunge towards the sentimental, we are rescued by this marvellous counterpoint.

"Nothing thrills us anymore. No one kills us anymore. Life is such a chore when it's boring."

It's a tale of crippling ennui.

"Love of my lifeBear your childEverything I've ever wantedBoring"

I love it. It reminds me a bit of Black Box Recorder.

10. Late December - Maria McKee (2007)

I remember Maria McKee, although this song sounds quite different to "A Good Heart". This song sounds much more mature.... which I suppose is only to be expected, as she's now 43, and wrote that first song when she was 19 years old. This is pleasant enough, but it really doesn't grab me.

11. Our Life is Not a Movie or a Maybe - Okkervil River (2007)

This is brilliant. My favourite song on the mix. Not a band that I've heard of (although coincidentally, after listening to this CD, I stumbled across a tiny little review of their last album in Q). It's probably the guitar and the drums that I first respond to in this record, but the singer has got a really interesting voice and injects a wonderful sense of urgency into the song that really drives it along. Definitely a band I want to hear more of. Great song title too.

12. Matadjem Yinmixian - Tiniwaren (2007)

I'm familiar with Tiniwaren - our Berber guide when we went to the Sahara in 2001 raved about them, and I've actually seen them playing live a couple of times on the Jazz Stage at Glastonbury. The skill with which they weave their guitar lines together is spellbinding, and this song is fairly typical (to my untutored ears, anyway). Whilst I can appreciate the skill though, and sway along to the seductive rhythms, it's not really my cup of tea. It's good, but not something I would want to listen to all of the time. It's a ridiculous comparison, but they're like Muse in that respect: a band I like who are capable of making some brilliant music, but who I find a bit too much to take in if listened to in anything more than small doses. I just compared Tiniwaren to Muse. Sheesh.

13. Keys to Your Heart - The 101'ers (1976)

The year the song was recorded is the giveaway: this is punk. Actually, it's proto-punk: it sounds a bit like punk, but you can also clearly hear the influence of the Beatles in the melody. I was actually intrigued to hear this for the first time I was driving down the motorway to Oxford a couple of weeks ago. Is this just generic punk, or is it something more than that? The singer sounds awfully like Joe Strummer... is he just aping the Clash? As usual, wikipedia comes up with the answer: the 101'ers were the band that Strummer left to join the Clash. Perhaps I should chastise myself for needing to look that up, but actually my primary emotion is a touch of smugness that I picked him out... not that it's too hard with a voice that distinctive. Good song. He'll go far.

14. Shake Some Action - The Flamin' Groovies (1976)

That band name sounds like something out of Austin Powers. Recorded in the same year as the 101'ers song, but it sounds very different. It's not harking forwards towards punk, it sounds as though it's rather looking backwards at the classic pop of the 1960s. It does a good job too. A very presentable record indeed, with a slightly harder edge than some of the 60s songs that it echoes. I could almost imagine this being used on the soundtrack to a Vietnam film... well, it would make a change from the bloody Doors, eh? I really like this one.

15. Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes - Kevin Ayers (1971)

Not an artist that I am familiar with, but one that I know Mike adores, so I'll listen with the appropriate level of reverence. My immediate impression is that I instantly start to earworm "Camouflage" by Stan Ridgeway. That's horribly unfair though, as this is a good record. Perhaps Tom Waits would be a fairer comparison. The song tells a story of how a guy inspires the barman who initially refuses to serve him to quit working for the man and get out to feel the wind on his skin. The change seems to be brought about by a "green cigarette". Make of that what you will.

He was an awfully big marine though.

Sorry.

Good song. Another one I want to investigate further.

16. Born For a Purpose / Reason For Living - Dr. Alimantado (1977)

The name sounds (in my head) unfortunately like Dr. Albarn, but luckily the song sounds nothing like him. This is reggae. I like reggae, but it's one of those genres that I like to have wash over me, and consequently I find it quite hard to judge a single song. I was going to put a reggae song on my own shuffleathon (the Radiodread cover of "Lucky"), but much though I loved the song, I just couldn't make it work on the mix. This song is similar, I suppose, in that it seems a bit out of place. It's not that it's not a good song, because it is. It's just... a bit out of context.

17. If It Feels Good, Do It - Della Reese (1971)

Having said that the reggae seems out of context, I think it's only fair to say that the bassline on this song actually makes it a really good piece of sequencing. This is a very different kettle of fish. It's a big, brassy celebration of a song. I'm not sure that the message of the song is religious, but it sounds almost gospel in it's arms-raised-to-heaven exultation. I've just found myself nodding my head and waving my arms about the place as I sit at my desk. That has to be a good sign, right?

18. The Only Way is Up - Otis Clay (1976)

Yes, it is the same song that I remember as being a huge hit for Yazz and the Plastic Population.... do I even need to say that this version is better? The funky guitar, the brass, the big, beautiful voice that has at least twice as much soul and feeling as Yazz was able to muster on her cover. Aw, dammit, this is a great record (and also another great piece of sequencing with the Della Reese song - the DJ is having a blinder here).

Hold on. Hold on. Won't be long now.

Aces!

19. Goin' Back - Dusty Springfield (1966)

Yayyyyyyyyyy! Dusty! Greatest female vocalist ever! I love the way that such a crystal clear voice can convey both great coolness and great yearning and sadness. A great way to finish the mix.

So......my overriding impression of this CD is just how well paced it is: each song blends almost seamlessly into the last. On top of that, although almost all of these songs are outside of my usual musical comfort zone, they sound really good when listened to one after the other - a tribute to the compiler, I think. It's fair to say that my own personal tastes in music are quite a lot more up-tempo than this (ROCK!), but whilst this won't be on permanent rotation, I think it's going to make a great playlist for listening to in my quieter moments, especially in the evening. A really good CD, made all the better by the fact that I feel as though I've been challenged. Good job Mike. And I really do want to investigate Okkervil River and Kevin Ayers some more, I reckon.

I'd also be very interested in the compiler's story behind the CD.... What do these tracks mean to you Mike?

Thursday, October 25, 2007

night and day I breathe....

This is harder than it looks this. I know I've been restricting myself to the shelves in one particular room and I'm not supposed to be including other stuff that's lying around the house and in the car and things... but life's not that black and white. Although the CDs on the main shelves are pretty neatly ordered, there's an overspill shelf just next door, and every time I look at it, I see something else that I've missed. Not only that, but CDs keep finding their way back from little piles around the house (although the pile on the stairs from a recent clearout of the car is still there and has been there for about a month now. I'd have a sweep up, but it'll just make things more complicated).

Anyway.

Where were we?

Omissions first, I think.

210. Cold War Kids – Robbers and Cowards

I bought this in anticipation of going to a concert that I never actually went to. I think it's fair to say that I didn't really get on with this record for a while, but increasingly I find that it has crawled under my skin. I didn't bother going to see them at Glastonbury when I had the chance, but given that I greet hearing them on the radio with some enthusiasm, perhaps I had better make the effort the next time they are in town?

211. Faith No More – The Real Thing212. Faith No More – Angel Dust

From the heavy metal years, but still damn fine albums. I was lucky enough to be at the famous gig at the NEC where it rained seat covers. Perhaps you had to be there?

213. Jose Gonazalez – Veneer

Um. Pleasant.

214. Gnu Cnu – Confessions of an Idiot

Ah, now this one is a stone cold classic. Quite how it was never massive is beyond me, and the record labels should be ashamed for not putting more muscle behind this artist. Speaking of, anyone seen Flash recently? Last I heard, he was working on his new album... well, we're waiting....

and now to the main event. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "H" (no, not that one)

215. Hefner – Breaking God’s Heart

I saw this lot backing Billy Bragg in Bristol once and thought they were interesting. They are interesting, but given that I haven't listened to this album in more than 5 years, apparently they weren't that interesting. I'll give this one a spin and then get back to you, I think.

216. Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

RnB is not the most populous genre in my collection, and I think this one was actually a gift. It's a great record, I think, but not one that has been in my CD player for a little while. Another one to get back out, I think (although really, wasn't it the guy from the Fugees who said "one time" the real talent in that band? I certainly thought so.)

217. Jimi Hendrix – Experience Hendrix

Generic greatest hits to replace a generic greatest hits with some kind of scary Jimi Hendrix puppet on the front that I used to have on cassette. Brilliant, of course.

218. The Juliana Hatfield Three – Become What You Are

I can remember buying this album distinctly. I was staying in Plymouth with my grandparents and I walked into town and purchased this from the local Virgin Megastore because it had been given full marks by (I think) Select magazine. Juliana Hatfield was (and still is) absolutely gorgeous, and although she apparently a former girlfriend of Evan Dando, she was famous for apparently still being a virgin. Well, whatever... this is harmless sounding really, but I absolutely loved it at the time. "My Sister" in particular rocked my world.

"Rid of Me" is a very scary album with very oddly fluctuating sound levels. I know this because I once played the title track on University Radio and had just pumped the sound right up because the levels were so low that the station was in danger of going off the air, when suddenly, at deafening volume, the old banshee starts shrieking "LICK MY LEGS, I'M ON FIRE. LICK MY LEGS OF DESIRE". Brilliant. The other album deservedly won the Mercury Music Prize a few years back, and is rather more tuneful but equally brilliant. Oddly, I've not really been tempted by any of her other stuff. I should check it out actually, starting with the desert session she did with Josh Homme.

Yeah, so they have a schtick and they're not about to deviate from that template... but I like the Hives. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Definitely the loudest gig I have ever been to in my life.

223. Bill Hicks – Philosophy

Do I have to explain? This went down brilliantly in a car on the way to a stag do in Newquay, as I recall.

224. Hope of the States – The Lost Riots

Dense.

225. Richard Hawley – Coles Corner

I used to like the Longpigs. They were dead good. And then this Richard Hawley bloke (when not moonlighting with Pulp) goes away, greases up his quiff and dusts off his Elvis records, and comes back with this. I don't think it's an obvious record at all, but it's brilliant in a very understated kind of way. He loves Scott Walker too, so he must be ace.

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Tomorrow: a long overdue update on the Shuffleathon (you never know... I'm working from home, so I might even have got off my boney arse and posted my CD out....)

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

chase the bad things away....

The Twang @ Nottingham Rock City, 24th October 2007

I knew the sum total of one song by The Twang going into this gig, and I only found out that it was them who sung it when I was watching some coverage of the 2007 Glastonbury Festival on the telly once I had got home and scrubbed the mud off. I don't think I even knew the band were playing at the Festival, so the question of whether or not I should slog my way down to the John Peel Stage never really came up in conversation, never mind being a serious option. Besides, John Fogerty's performance on the Jazz Stage that Saturday night was one of my festival highlights, so it's hard to feel too regretful about missing a band I'd barely heard of.

To be fair, they did look really good on the telly though, and "Either Way" really is a cracking song.

For once in my life then, I actually approached a gig with an almost completely open mind. I didn't know enough about the band to feel strongly one way or the other about them, and the one song of theirs that I have heard was pretty good, which had me leaning slightly to the positive.

It could still have gone either way, no crap joke intended.

Oh dear.

First the positive things: they played "Either Way" about two songs in, and it was magnificent. The crowd were probably surprised to hear it played so early, but greeted it like a long-lost friend and responded brilliantly. This song alone is easily worth two marks onto the gig review. It's tender and a little bit moving, whilst the voices of the two singers blend really well.

That's it.

There is no more good stuff to report. If you like The Twang, then it's probably better to stop reading now.

The band were dreadful. If I was being charitable, I would say that they were handicapped by muddy sound, but the truth of the matter is that I'm not sure that crystal clear sound would have made any difference. A lot of the singing is really just pub karaoke bellowing, and as if to reinforce that impression, the co-vocalist appears to be a pissed bloke who could have been pulled straight out of the crowd and shouts into a microphone a bit on the choruses. "Either Way" and "Wide Awake" aside, the songs are all dreadfully dreary and instantly forgettable. I started with an open mind but as each song came and went, I could feel the review score tumbling.

The crowd loved it, of course.

Apparently the band used to be called "Neon Twang", but changed their name when they found they were unable to get bookings because of a reputation for crowd trouble. Well, the name has changed, but the crowd it seems remains the same. Like Oasis, The Twang clearly attract a certain sort of crowd: young(ish) men with gelled hair, white trainers and often wearing some kind of leisurewear and/or a raincoat. They drank large quantities of lager, carefully making sure that they left just enough liquid in the bottom of the plastic cup to hurl into the crowd in front of them with what looked like real venom. They danced as only people like this can dance: like drunken, spastic gibbons with puppet strings attached to their limbs. They stagger up and down on the spot in some kind of leering St. Vitus's dance, occasionally turning to their mates and pausing mid-bellow to raise a pointed, triumphal finger to the sky.

I generally say that a night out at a mediocre gig is better than a night in front of the telly. Not tonight. It was awful. "Wide Awake" prompted another flurry of beer raining down into the crowd, so I beat a hasty retreat to the exit, only actually leaving when the band came back on for an encore, said how shit encores were and then played a cover of "Drinking in LA". They may have played more, but we didn't stick around to find out what and slid out of a side door and into the street.

The music has no soul and it attracts the crowd it deserves.

Verdict: 2/10. (both marks for "Either Way")

Thanks as always to my gig-going companions, LB, Hen and Sarah. At least we got to have a pleasant meal beforehand, eh? Next time they're in town, let's just have the meal and another bottle of wine....

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

read all about it....

There's no two ways about it: travelling in rush hour traffic can be be boring. I'm lucky enough that my commute only takes me fifteen minutes or so, but sometimes even that measly quarter of an hour can seem to drag. As I usually travel on my own, I tend to pass the time in the car listening to the radio or singing along to a CD. It's also quite a good opportunity to people watch, as within the bubble of their own car, people tend to imagine that they're somehow invisible and behave accordingly. You see people applying make-up, having a shave, picking their nose, having an argument on the phone, kissing their passenger... all sorts of things.

Even so, it's still pretty dull.

Mind you, it might be tedious, but I think that the guy who overtook me this morning whilst reading the paper was taking things too far - he was literally holding the newspaper up with both hands in front of his steering wheel as he came past me.

I would have tried to stay alongside him for a while, but it was yesterday's paper and I'd already read it.

Monday, October 22, 2007

that's the word out on the town....

I had my performance review at work the other day. It wasn't the big review that we get at the end of the financial year, but a smaller interim one to cover the first six months of the year and to let me know how I have been getting on. Like most people, I don't take these things terribly seriously. In fact, I only sat down with my boss to write the performance contract I was reviewed against about 3 weeks before the actual review, for heaven's sake. I suppose I would care more if I felt that I had any great influence over the score that I get, but this is controlled more by quotas than by individual performance, so I satisfy myself with trying to do the best that I can. Doing the job. That's the really important thing, right?

Hmm. Perhaps this defeatist attitude is the reason why my career has only reached the dizzy lowlands it currently occupies.

Anyway.

In the session, I discovered that I now get scored slightly differently. "Delivery" is now only one part of my performance measure. If I only exceed in "delivery", then apparently I will only be doing half a job. What other measure can be as important as delivery then? Why, "Behaviours", of course.

I suppose that would be reasonable enough, if the "behaviours" in question were the ones I used with my customers to support my "delivery"... but no.... the way I behave with my customers has got nothing to do with it. Those "behaviours" are part of my "delivery". These other "behaviours" are a measure of how much I conform to the "culture" and "people charter" of my department (both of which are new inventions) and how much I adhere to the department's "process" (which is both insanely complicated and largely pointless).

Oh bugger.

The second I heard this, I knew I was likely to be in for a rough ride. I work really hard to try and make sure that I support my customers. A rather large part of that work involves me trying to protect them from the needless complication and confusion that my department tries to foist on them as it struggles to operate in a difficult outsourced environment that we keep making more and more complex. I know it's a horrible job to come up with a perfect process, and I try to follow this one as best I can, but with the best will in the world, I reckon it's actually now impossible to make head or tail of any of the detail of it. You simply cannot explain it to anyone. It just can't be done. Dilbert and David Brent have got nothing on my lot. We have endless briefings where this already convoluted process is made yet more labyrinthine in an attempt to "clarify" and to "simplify". I tell you, if Sisyphus worked in our department, not only would his boulder be made bigger every time he tried to push it up the hill, but it would also be gradually "improved" into a less rollable shape, and the hill would be gradually made steeper and bumpier. Eventually he would be trying to push a giant cube up a greased right angle.

It's utter rubbish, and the people responsible for it should be shot.... well, perhaps that's a bit strong.... but they certainly keep on trying to vigorously polish that turd and they sure seem to be enjoying themselves.

My problem is that I tend to point this out whenever we have these endless bloody meetings to try and work out what's going wrong and how we can move forwards. I can't help it. I have an analytical mind, and although I know I would be better just shrugging my shoulders and ignoring the whole steaming pile of shit, I can't. I want to understand why someone thinks this is a good idea and why they think this is beneficial for the business. Unfortunately, the more questions I ask, the more people think I'm attacking them for being ignorant tossers. That may be true, but it's not my intention: I genuinely do want to understand and to see what they are trying to do.

So when my boss told me that this was a key measure of my performance, I asked him if I was being assessed on my behaviour with my customers, or my behaviour with my colleagues. He smiled and asked me who I thought had done the scoring.

Shit. My colleagues. The ones who think I think they're fools (incidentally, a big hello to any of them who happen to be reading this!)

Behaviours like these are important to some extent - I don't have any argument about that. But are they really equally as important as what we deliver? Really? a 50:50 split?

I like my boss, and I think that -- although he's far too professional to say so -- he is sympathetic towards my views. So I asked him which me he would prefer: the employee who was really good with his customers and had a good record of delivery and good feedback, or the one who was not so good at that, but said all the right things in team meetings. Not surprisingly, although he smiled suggestively, he simply said that he wanted a combination of the two. Fair enough.

My overall score was okay, but my "behaviours" were right down near the "fall short" mark. I've got six months to learn how to bite my tongue to get a better performance grade at the end of the year.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

losing my favourite game...

So the 2007 Rugby World Cup ends with a win for South Africa and gloriously heroic failure by a, let's face it, really quite limited England team. No shame in that, no shame at all. On the night we had the possession and the determination to win, but in the final analysis we weren't quite good enough to break through the South African defense, and in the end I think that they were worthy winners. The fact that we might not have had the rub of the green on the night from the referee is neither here nor there. These things balance themselves out over time, and we had our share of luck in getting this far. And it wasn't a try either.... Cueto's foot clearly dragged across the line (and therefore into touch) before he touched the ball down. That his foot was in the air when he actually placed the ball is irrelevant if it had been out of play at any point before. Not that a try then would have made much difference to the result.

I watched the game in the pub. One of my friends went to Paris with his dad and paid 700 Euros for the pleasure of watching the game live, but I was happy just to be surrounded by a fairly large crowd shouting at a big screen. Kick off was at 8pm, but we turned up at around 4pm to try and make sure that we got reasonable seats, which we did. We then had the pleasure of killing time by watching -- simultaneously on three different screens -- Australia losing to India in the cricket, Manchester Utd beating Aston Villa in the football and Lewis Hamilton qualifying on the front row for the Brazilian Grand Prix. By the time the rugby came on, there was quite a press of people and the bouncers had stopped letting people into the pub. The singing of the anthems is quite a big thing in a rugby game: you often see the players, grown men all, unable to contain their emotions as they wait for kick off. It affects the spectators too. "God Save The Queen" is no great shakes as an anthem, and it is positively dirge-like compared to the magical "Marseillaise", but a lot of people really love it. Last night, a couple of guys, pushing their way back to their seats, stopped right in front of me to watch it. I like watching the faces of the players as the anthems play, so I gently tapped one of the guys on the shoulder and asked him if he could move a bit. He rounded on me and started to abuse me for not standing up during the National Anthem as though it was my solemn civic duty. I thought he was joking, but he then turned back round and proceeded to sing his heart out at the screen with his right arm stretched right out, open-palmed.... in other words he was doing a Nazi salute to the anthem. I was a little bit taken aback. I was watching the game in what is predominantly a football pub, and had spotted a guy a little earlier at the bar wearing an England football shirt and with a three lions tattoo proudly displayed on his right arm. I don't mind the football shirt, but I find the tattoo hard to understand. I like my country well enough, but not so blindly that I would want a symbol like that permanently etched into my skin, not least because of some of the connotations of the English football fan. It's my county and I was born here, but it's certainly not my country, right or wrong. I was supporting my country in the rugby, but it's only a game. Luckily the guy moved on after the anthems and we could all relax and try to enjoy the game.

Later on, after the game, I found myself standing at the urinal next to a chap wearing a South Africa shirt and with his face painted green and gold. I told him how I thought the best team had won, and he turned to me and said he felt that it had been unbelievably close and that England had been unlucky. At this point someone else at the urinal told me that I should stop being so bloody philosophical about our defeat, and another told the South African that he would be lucky to get out of the bar alive. I think he was joking, but the South African was not terribly impressed, and I don't blame him. We lost. They won. It's just a game. It's not war. Jonny Wilkinson tackles as though his life depends upon it, but his life does not depend on it. He plays with controlled aggression, but crucially with no malice. If only more fans could watch the game in the same way.

Still. It's been a great tournament with dignified and ultimately deserving winners.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Sleeping in my bed, strange thoughts, running through my head...

You lucky people.

I was all gearing up to start writing up my earworms of the week when someone went and rescued you all from that fate by volunteering. I'm only fractionally disappointed by this, and I imagine that most of you aren't disappointed at all. Even the fact that my list would certainly have included the Foo Fighters cover of "Band on the Run" probably doesn't make having a proper Guest Editor anything less than a delight. Mind you, the fact that I've just watched a programme that counted down a list of the most annoying songs ever recorded should probably automatically disqualify me from listing any earworms for at least a month. If not longer ("Barbie Girl"? "My Heart Will Go On"? "Come On Eileen"? Crazy Frog? Band Aid 20? dear oh dear...)

Pah.

Anyway.

This week's guest is a long-term reader who has recently become a valued and thoughtful commentator and shuffleathon participant....

Without further ado, I shall leave you in his more than capable hands and go back to watching the 3rd place play-off in the rugby.......

Earworms of the Week - Guest Editor #72 - The Great Grape Ape

My head is always spinning with some song or other, usually what I have been listening to in the car on the way to and from work. These are what have been in my mind this week.

> Bellowhead – Across the line

I have been earworming their Burlesque album after including a track from it in my Shuffleathon selection and I have been singing this track (which is probably my favourite from the album) under my breath on several occasions this week, along with Jordan and that great Coppersong One May Morning Early. They are best served live but in the absence of space in the front room for 11 bouncing musicians (not to mention their enormous instruments – cripes vicar have you seen the size of that euphonium!) the recorded version will do.

> Scott Walker – The Escape

I have this on a self made compilation and think it is one of the best tracks on “The Drift”. I love the sinister Donald Duck voice which comes in three quarters of the way through this dark piece of music. The man has a great sense of humour.

> Richard Hawley – Coles Corner

Having seen Mr Hawley recently in the Scott Walker documentary film (Thanks Mr Toni for revealing that it was out on dvd ) and being impressed by his 1950s sartorial genius and top Sheffield accent, I pulled out Coles Corner and Lowedges again. I think I prefer Coles Corner, and this, the opening track is just wonderful. It’s easy to write his music off as pastiche but his songwriting is really good. There’s nothing surprising there but what he does, he does beautifully. Nice to see someone keeping Brylcreem in business too.

> Anne Briggs – Fine Horseman

This song is an old favourite of mine, was originally written by the great Lal Waterson and has been covered by many people over the years. Anne Briggs “The Time Has Come” album has recently been re-released and this has been in my head ever since.

> Alemayehu Eshete – Eskegiew Bertchi

Is an Ethiopian singer who sings in Amharic and has been going since the 1960s. This is a really funky track which I think dates from the 1970s and has an insistent nagging beat. I also love this because it sounds like he is singing the whole thing backwards.

I can’t comment on the content of the lyrics.

> Bjork – Dull Flame of Desire

Mmm, I have a bit of a love/hate thing going with Bjork. I bought religiously her first few solo albums but sort of lost interest after Vespertine. Largely because I found her tendency to fleece her obsessive fans by releasing copious versions of things rather offputting. I have come to the conclusion that I like to listen tracks by her in isolation so as not to get tired of her quirkiness which can get boring after a while. This track off Volta is such a tender beautiful piece of music. It’s the horns that do it – apparently a female Icelandic brass band called “Wonderbrass”. Oh and it’s a duet with Antony (of the Johnsons) and his voice melds beautifully with Bjorks. I did love Andy Kershaw the other month on Front Row (BBC Radio 4 arts programme, foreign readers) repeating in his gruff Rochdale accent at volume “The woman can’t sing”. I think he sort of has a point but still think she has the capacity to create music of a quality which makes that irrelevant. Two other tracks off Volta, Earth Intruders and Wanderlust have also been in my head this week.

> Steeleye Span – Copshawholme Fair

A track which Bellowhead have also done a version of , but I have had the Hark ! The Village Wait (the album from which this comes) on in the car this week. It’s a lovely old song about the Cumberland hiring fairs or mop fairs as they were sometimes called.

> Robyn – With every heartbeat

Top pop song of the year, and fantastic to have had as a number one UK single. Throbbing synthesisers, classical strings and vocals which sound almost Kate Bush at times. Nothing is surplus to requirements. It’s the “maybe we could make it happen baby” bit which I can’t remove from me head. I don’t expect a song of this quality to make number one for some time to come.

> Robert Wyatt – Heaps of sheeps

I dug out the “Shleep” album from which this comes last week to listen to in the car. I haven’t heard his latest album yet. This is the first song and the one I keep humming. It’s from 1997 but it has almost a Madchester sound at times.

> Joni Mitchell – Shine

Joni Mitchell, first new album in ten years, yadda, yadda, yadda. Joni Mitchell is one of the few artists whom I think has incredible talent and has been pretty consistent over the years. I own most of her back catalogue and automatically buy every new release. It’s a good album, with few surprises and as has been the case with Joni for some time, sounds awfully MOR at times. Which is fine. She has been criticised for her almost naïve approach to the world’s problems on this record (as well as releasing this on Starbucks’ own record label) as this is a protest record of sorts. It’s theme is essentially “hope is the only thing we can have in the face of such overwhelming adversity”. War is bad. Religion can be bad. What we are doing to the environment is bad. People have the potential to be good. I don’t find her lyrics embarrassing because I think she lives them and also because I agree with her on most of them. This song keeps cropping up in my head.

They are from the North-East of England and they sing with Geordie accents. The album from which these songs are from,“The Bairns”, is, no question, my favourite album of 2007.

I play the album at least once every day at the moment and am consequently earworming every song off it at least once every week. If I was to draw up a list of earworms based on the amount of time each song spent whizzing round my head then the list would probably be 100% Unthank. These two are currently the most popular. The music is made up of mainly traditional Northumbrian folk songs but with covers of songs by people such as Will Oldham and Robert Wyatt and their talented pianist and arranger Belinda O’Hooley thrown in for good measure. The arrangements of the songs draw on jazz, classical folk and even ambient rock influences. I have recently been reading a book called Crow Country which is my favourite book of the year so far and this is the perfect soundtrack to it, bringing to mind bleak autumn and winter landscapes, silhouettes of trees, beaches under snow and hordes of black birds flocking to roost. As you can perhaps detect, it’s not a laugh a minute but amongst it’s dark songs of domestic violence, infant death and life at sea are a few moments of humour and positivity .

It is, by the way, a grower – it took me about ten listens to realise its incredible strength but I have been hooked ever since.

(Cheque payable to Mr G G Ape please, Ms Unthank)

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My thanks to the GGA. A sterling effort and a welcome break from the usual guitar-orientated nonsense that pops into my head every week. Any hints as to your likely shuffleathon content there, I wonder?

Thursday, October 18, 2007

let's go outside.....part ii

It's high time we had the week's obligatory cat post, I think....

There can't be many more pathetic sights in the world than a cat's poor, mournful little face as it peers through a cat flap from the outside. Well, perhaps that's not quite as pathetic a sight as the owner of said cat on their hands and knees on the other side of the cat flap, trying to coax their pet inside with encouraging noises and freeze-dried prawns...

Oh bless her, but it appears that Minou is not the sharpest tool in the box. She knows how to get out (although she sometimes needs a bit of a reminder), but she seems unable to work out how to get back into the house, and generally sits mournfully outside, staring hopelessly at the little doorway that some part of her head is telling her is the way back into the house.

I'm sure she'll get there in time.

In other news, it turns out that -- thanks to the close attention of a particularly good photographer -- our cat may well become a superstar. The RSPCA like the pictures of her so much that they want to add them to their image library (or something... you'll have to ask Hen for the details). Minou was rescued by the RSPCA, of course, so perhaps it's fitting that they should be the ones to provide her with her first big break in the world of modelling.

I don't think I'll tell her just yet..... It'll only go straight to her head and, to be honest, I think she's got more than enough on her plate trying to work out the cat flap.

Turns out she's not the only cute cat in the world either....

There's always a younger model, eh?

Statler (on the chair, with the moustache) and Waldorf (in hand) are the latest additions to the Ultimate Olympian's family.... they're only nine weeks old, so still pretty small.... but cute, eh?

Tomorrow: a rather more manly discussion on rugby, music, pipe smoking and other such things.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

I've tasted life and I'm ready....

Right. You know the deal: this is not a definitive list of my music collection. This is a walkthrough a particular set of shelves that hold many (but not all) of my CDs. Blah, blah, blah. You remember CDs, right? They're the things that you can cover in marmalade and put in your freezer and they still play perfectly. Remember now? A bit like an iPod, only with a lot less music on it (although apparently a lot better at scaring birds off your vegetable patch when hung on a piece of string. If you have a vegetable patch, obviously).

I'm not sure one record has ever dominated my stereo for such a such a long period of time as "Appetite for Destruction". For a long stretch between late 1987 and the first half of 1988, I barely listened to anything else (well, I think I might have alternated it with "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" for some of that time). 20 years later, it still sounds absolutely brilliant. Nobody has produced a rock album quite like this one since.... certainly not Guns n' Roses, anyway. I saw them play Wembley Stadium shortly before the release of the "Use Your Illusion" albums, and although they were pretty good, I think the writing was already on the wall. Izzy Stradlin left the band for good immediately after the gig (to join the beautifully named Ju-Ju Hounds) and it was downhill from there. There's some good stuff spread across those albums, but for every "You Could Be Mine" there was a "Shotgun Blues" or a "Get In The Ring" (Bob Guccioni Jr at Spin magazine must love that song, or do you think he's really pissed off that his dad gets more pussy than him?!). We're still waiting for "Chinese Democracy", aren't we? I'm not expecting a dramatic improvement, to be honest, and I stopped holding my breath nearly a decade ago.

195. Gorillaz – Demon Days196. Gorillaz – Gorillaz

It sounds like such a bad idea on paper: the bloke from Blur and the guy who created Tank Girl form an imaginary band using cartoons. Madly enough, it works. They're not albums that I can listen to all day long, but they are both pretty interesting and listeneable. "Demon Days" in particular has some fantastic tracks on it, and I'm never very far away from having "Kids with Guns" stuck on my internal jukebox. It's good stuff, and the resurrection of Shaun Ryder for "DARE" was an inspired move. I always used to think of Damon Albarn as being "a bit of a cock", but he's made me change my mind.

197. The Good, The Bad & The Queen - The Good, The Bad & The Queen

Here's another good album that Damon Albarn's been involved with. This is a bit of a slow burner and definitely works best when heard all in one go - there aren't really any obvious singles and all of the tracks sound as though they are meant to be played in order. It's great though. Melancholy and somehow very English. What the hell happened to Paul Simonon though? His bass lines are instantly recognisable, of course, but he used to be such a good looking fella. The years have not been kind.

198. Serge Gainsbourg – de Gainsbourg a Gainsbarre

A French collection of the archetypal Gallic dirty old man's finest work. It's a bit hit and miss (and I'm no fan of "Lemon Incest" or of some of his ill-advised forays into reggae), but you can't argue with songs like "Je t'aime" or "Bonnie and Clyde", can you?

This is the one with "Lovely Head" on it, a.k.a the music from that old One2One advert, and I think this was also nominated for the Mercury Prize. This was before Alison Goldfrapp became the sauce pot that we all know and love.

What can I say? I like Gene and I always have. In their early days, they were rather dogged by the accusation that they were nothing more than a Smiths tribute band...(I remember the NME giving them a particularly hard time about it and a 3/10 review for "Olympian") and although there's little denying that the early albums do have that feel to them, there has always been something different about Gene. Martin Rossiter has a very different voice to Morrissey for starters, and by "Libertine" he's singing in the most soulful croon. They were one of those bands who never really made it as big as they might have done if they'd perhaps been a bit luckier. They were never fashionable, apart from the brief period when they had a run of hit singles off "Drawn to the Deep End", including the fantastic "Fighting Fit", and in the end they were more or less funding themselves. I saw them play a half-full Rock City to promote "Libertine", their final album, and they were magnificent - a band at the peak of their power. Sadly it was all pearls before swine, and they packed it in soon afterwards.

206. Green Day – American Idiot

Is it me, or is this album unbelievably overrated? It's alright, and it has a couple of decent songs on it, but is it really all that? They've certainly done better.

207. Girl Talk – Night Ripper

This is a sporadically entertaining mix album, in the 2ManyDJs mould, but with more sweary rap on it and not quite as good.

208. Grandaddy – The Sophtware Slump

Beardy people. Moderately interesting indie.

209. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

Most famous for "Crazy" of course, but actually this is a pretty good effort.

Okay, UK postal strike over, so hopefully the CDs will start to trickle through now. I've even managed to get mine burnt now and I've been very slack.... so if you haven't got your CD done yet, now would be a good time to start pulling your fingers out.

We've only had one review so far, but a few CDs have been plopping onto doormats in the last couple of days, so hopefully we're not far away from a few more. I'll be putting my review of Mike's CD up in the next couple of days... perhaps after a few more listens (although I think it's already fair to say that I've never received such a well paced compilation...). I've also received a bonus CD all the way from Canada this morning, which I'm very much looking forward to giving a listen... so thanks for that asta.

So, where are we? How many CDs intercepted and examined by customs? (just the one so far, and they were at least good enough to send it on)